UTx Now With A Coach, Placed On Leave.

[LSUDad]

Texas tennis coach Michael Center placed on leave after being charged in college admissions scandal

 

Nick Moyle  | March 12, 2019

 

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Photo: University Of Texas Athletics

 

 

 

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Texas men's tennis coach Michael Center.

 

AUSTIN – Texas has placed men’s tennis coach Michael Center on administrative leave after he was charged with conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud, a school official confirmed Tuesday morning.

“Federal authorities notified us this morning that we were victims of an organized criminal effort involving admissions,” Texas said in an official statement. “We have just become aware of charges against our men’s tennis coach Michael Center and he will be placed on administrative leave until further notice while we gather information. We are cooperating fully with the investigation. Integrity in admissions is vital to the academic and ethical standards of our university.”

[LSUDad]

Center has been accused of accepting lucrative bribes as part of a wide-ranging college admissions conspiracy that “facilitated cheating on college entrance exams and the admission of students to elite universities as purported athletic recruits,” according to documents unsealed on March 12, 2019, in federal court in Boston. Wealthy parents allegedly disguised their children as coveted athletic recruits to help them gain admission into upper echelon universities.

[LSUDad]

Center was one of several tennis coaches from prestigious universities implicated in the scandal. Tennis coaches from Yale, UCLA, Georgetown and Stanford were also charged, as well as parents and exam administrators.

 

According to a criminal complaint filed against Center on March 6, 2019, Center agreed to accept approximately $100,000 from a cooperating witness who worked with The Edge College & Career Network, LLC, also known as "The Key,” as a bribe, in exchange for which he would designate a student to the tennis team, thereby facilitating his admission to the university.

The applications admission to Texas listed him as a manager of his high school basketball and football teams. The only tennis referenced in his application was one year of tennis as a high school freshman.

The cooperating witness admitted to law enforcement agents that between the years of approximately 2011 through 2018, clients paid him approximately $25 million to bribe coaches and university administrators at elite universities nationwide.

The witness told investigators that in June 2015, he flew to Austin and delivered Center approximately $60,00 in a hotel parking lot. Center put some of the money into the school’s new tennis facility.

Shortly after starting classes at Texas during Fall 2015, the applicant Center awarded a tennis scholarship to voluntarily withdrew from the team and renounced his "books" scholarship, meaning that he decided to no longer receive money from the university to purchase his school books and he no longer would be classified as a student-athlete.

During a wire-tapped phone call on Oct. 5, 2018, the cooperating witness spoke with Center about engaging in a similar scheme (cooperating witness is identified as “CW-1”):

CW-1: But I was calling you, because I have a kid for potentially next year. He's a

2-3 star, so obviously he's not at the level of you guys.

CENTER Yeah.

CW-1: And I was hoping that maybe we could, kinda, do what we did last time.

I'm not sure exactly what we actually did, but whatever that is, if we could

do something like that, that would be fabulous. Do you remember what we

did?

6

CENTER: Yeah, I mean I signed him to "books."

CW-1: Yeah. Ok.

CENTER: And I got him in the school, you know, and then he -- then he withdrew

from the team. I mean, does this kid wanna be on the team or does this kid

just wanna get into school?

CW-1: ... I think probably he could go either way.

CENTER Ok.

CW-1: ... he doesn't need to be on the team to be frank.

CENTER: Ok.

CW-1: But he can be, and he doesn't need the scholarship, so he can withdraw the

scholarship, right? You know, when school starts if you want that.

Center is one of the most decorated college tennis coaches in the nation. Texas has made three NCAA Final Four appearances and claimed nine Big 12 championships and eight conference tournament titles. He was named Big 12 coach of the year in 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018.